944 Engine Refresh Pt3

When it comes to the cam tower, everyone tries something
a little different and mine was so stained and ugly, I HAD to do
something. This is how we did it in the sixties - paint the
raised letters (as well as the background space), then sand down through the
paint, exposing the letters. This
little detail took about an hour to do.
This high temp paint is thin and dries instantly. The paint
is Dupli-Color High Heat 1200 "Aluminum" and
"Black."

Here I am about ready to install the the power steering
pulley (not shown). When the engine was running I noticed
that the pulley (a small v-belt pulley not shown above) had a definite
wobble and I wanted to replace it. After I scrounged up a
used pulley and was installing it I realized that the
original pulley wasn't bent so much as it wasn't seated
correctly. This resulted in the pulley not being centered
and a hence the wobble. I could have saved the $20 if I had
paid better attention and BTW, this wobble problem is one of
the most commonly made mistakes (more on that later).

You might notice that a mounted flywheel
won't fit on my engine stand. That meant that I
couldn't be sure that I had the crank at TDC and wouldn't dare guess at the
correct setting for the timing belt. Boy, It would have
been nice if the Porsche boys would have but a crank
position indicator on the front of the engine (like just about every other
engine ever made). I made a guestimate, by watching no. 1 piston position. I casually
set up the timing belt and then spent Sunday afternoon,
putting the engine back on the hoist, and setting the
flywheel on and finding TDC. I expected to be off a little but I found that
I was right on the money. Things are going almost too
well.

A quick check of the water pump to thermostat seal. It
looks
fine. This seal can be very hard to remove - especially when the engine & pump
is installed in the car. This is the seal that the thermostat's plunger
presses against. There is another rubber seal that goes on the outer perimeter
of the thermostat. There are two version of that thermostat seal, one much
thicker than the other - the thicker one is hard to get in place.

With the engine out, many small things can be done easily, like changing the
rear cam tower gasket. A leak here can actually be pretty serious and has even
been found to cause an oil fire. If you're changing this gasket with the engine
installed in the car, then you may find it easier to do it from below using
studs instead of the small M6 bolts. The studs allow you to do this with one
outstretched hand and "hang" the gasket and cap.

OK, I welded up the leaks in my original headers, this
has been tried by many before me but most won't hold for
long. So instead, I fell back to these cast iron
manifolds. I think they will flow pretty well and are very
strong; a little on the heavy side though. Still, I think this
might turn out to be a good decision.

Exhaust Manifold Studs

One of the regular aggravations is with the exhaust manifold studs. They are
known to break or come loose from the head. A favorite substitute are the studs
from a 94 Saturn SC2, here is a pic. Find them at Napa under part number
11518152.

I also replaced the rubber exhaust hangers as well as
other missing hardware so that the exhaust system is well supported. The catalytic converter is quite large
and positioned very close to a heat shield. I may have to
come back to this area for some adjustments.

For comparison, here is pic of the re-designed exhaust manifold, that came
out in 86.